Southeast

Southeast Wyoming covers the three counties — Albany, Carbon, Laramie — that hold the state’s I-80 corridor and the southern Snowy Range country. The terrain runs from the high prairie around Cheyenne up into the granite peaks and alpine lakes of the Medicine Bow Range above Laramie, with the long sage flats of the Red Desert and the Sierra Madre filling the western half. Cheyenne anchors Laramie County as the state capital, with the Wyoming State Capitol, the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo each July, and the Cheyenne Depot Museum downtown. Laramie sits west across the Laramie Range with the University of Wyoming and the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site. Saratoga in Carbon County holds the Hobo Hot Springs and the upper North Platte’s blue-ribbon trout water; Rawlins runs the I-80 stop at the Carbon County seat; Encampment and the Sierra Madre fill the southwestern corner. Trips here often anchor on Cheyenne for the Frontier Days week or use Laramie as a base for the Snowy Range Scenic Byway and the alpine lakes above 10,000 feet. Summer is the working season; the high country sees snow into June.